US CDC recommends Covid vaccines for healthy children today news

(Reuters) -The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Still recommends Covid -19 vaccines for healthy children, according to the latest published immunization schedule. The schedule, published late Thursday, comes after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Health and Human Services, and the heads of the FDA and the National Institutes of Health on Tuesday said the CDC will stop recommending routine Covid-199 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women. The manufacturers of Covid-19 vaccines available in the USA-Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax-did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The CDC, following its panel of experts, has previously recommended recommended updated Covid-19 vaccines for all six months and older, and the current recommendations are in line with those made before. The Infectious Diseases Society of America said on Tuesday that the recommendation “makes the opposite of what Americans asked when it comes to their health – it takes away choices and will affect it negatively.” It added that babies and children can “develop serious illnesses and can suffer from prolonged symptoms due to long covid, which can negatively affect its development.” Nearly 1,900 children up to 18 years old were died of Covid-19 in the US according to CDC’s estimates that were last updated in 2023. Traditionally, the CDC’s vaccination practices advisory committee would meet and vote on changes to the vaccination schedule or recommendations on who should get vaccines before the director of the agency made a final call. The committee did not vote on these changes that Kennedy announced. (Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington and Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; editing by Alan Barona and Shounak Dasgupta)